Cooking for one

Hollyharvey wrote: »

It makes me think that I should try once every couple of weeks to try something that I've never had before. Whether that be something shop bought or a new recipe.


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My motto there is to look for something I havent tried before every time I go in a food shop. Living where I do now - then I'm not going to get overwhelmed by a constant stream of new things to try and so that means I'm maybe only getting something new, say, once a month or so. If I lived back in Home City - then I'd have to ration myself - or I'd be buying loadsa new things every time I went shopping.

So it does depend a bit where one lives.

Ditto to living where I do now - then, when I see an ingredient featuring noticeably often in my newest cookbooks - then I will specifically look for it here and, if I cant find it, I send off and buy it from Amazon. I wasn't able to find teff flour or even silken tofu here for instance - so had to send off for it. But I did have a result the other day and finally saw some panko breadcrumbs in a shop here - and promptly bought them.

...and my thought for the day being I've been reading an online Guardian article by a chef (couldnt manage to type up a usable link to it on here) about not letting our confidence as a cook get undermined by recipes.

That being feeling we should do everything exactly as per recipe. There is a happy medium between someone saying "I've just made x recipe - but I changed this/altered quantity of that/etc/etc" to which I think "Well - you havent made x recipe then have you?" and feeling it's okay to amend a bit and not lay claim to it being the original recipe.

So - next time a recipe says that one needs to add 6 ingredients and it goes "first add this, then add that, then add something else" I shall do what he advocates and chuck all 6 ingredients in at once - unless there is a valid reason for separating out on that instruction.

He also said about not being afraid to think of substituting or missing out ingredients (one of our singles particular problem - as we buy stuff specifically for recipes and then land up with those leftovers again). Have started thinking like that already. With my weakness for cookbooks and trying to learn a new way of cooking - then I've just had through "Vegan on the go" - and I wondered why they seem to add some sweetening of some description to the type of recipes I swear don't usually have it. This time - I looked at the photo of the two of them on the back (clue = they're not slim) and promptly decided to omit those sweetenings any time I try one of their recipes and I must generally take ideas from them and then add a virtual "pinch of salt".

Now Deliciously Ella on the other hand - who has a figure similar to what I used to have/intend to have again - and I am much more likely to copy her recipes word for word:rotfl:

EDIT; I saw a set of photos online (newspaper article?) recently showing plates of the same sort of foods. There were 3 plates - one modern day size (ie too big), one normal size, one diet size and you could see that you shouldnt eat the first size plate worth ever and should eat plate 2 size and that plate 3 size was perfectly adequate whilst losing weight. Does anyone know of somewhere I could get through a nice poster or the like with some "sets of 3 plates" on that I could put up in my kitchen as a reminder. It's proving useful to try and picture those plates - but I feel I could do with a copy of this right in front of me on a daily basis.

I had to pop into Sainsbobs earlier - didn't intend to buy any food, but walked round anyway. Their £3.40 pizzas in the chiller are priced at £2, so I got one.... but I'll probably not cook it today.

Then I found their 4-packs of beans were at £1 (reduced sugar/salt) and I like those, so got two 4-packs...but as I hadn't intended shopping my arms were full so I paid and left.

Back home, not intending to cook the pizza, I had to choose something to eat, so made up a quick layered salad that used up the last bit of midget gem lettuce and a tomato - on top of which I plonked some tiny seashell pasta mixed with salad cream and grated cheese.

Now scoffing a choc ice